Man faces up to 20 years in lewdness case

A Gardnerville man faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to a count of attempted lewdness with a 13-year-old girl.

Michael Howell Jr., 22, could receive probation at his July 28 sentencing if a psychosexual evaluation found he was not a danger to reoffend.

Attorney Maria Pence said four competency evaluations support the plea agreement. Howell could have faced a life sentence if the charge had gone to a previously scheduled trial.

Pence confirmed that Howell understands the consequences of his plea to a charge that in June 2017 he attempted to commit a lewd or lascivious act with a child under the age of 14. He will have to register as a sex offender.

Howell has been in Douglas County custody since December 2018.

The girl was seeing Howell’s brother, Jaccob, who brought her to Howell’s apartment after meeting at a Gardnerville carnival.

For his part in the crime, Jaccob Howell was sentenced to 3-8 years in prison in January 2019, after admitting a count of attempted lewdness.

■ A June 17 trial date was set on Tuesday in the case of another man facing a variety of charges in Douglas County District Court, including lewdness with a 5-year-old child.

Jayson Kagan, 22, is also facing two charges of battery by a prisoner, destruction of property and open and gross lewdness that were racked up in the two years he’s been in custody.

District Judge Tod Young said he would examine ways to conduct a jury trial while following guidelines set forth by the Nevada Supreme Court.

“We’ll work on what we can do for the jurors to create a safe environment for them to deliberate in,” Young said. “If I find I can’t do it, I’ll vacate this trial.”

Kagan has undergone multiple competency evaluations since he was taken into custody. Attorney Brian Filter said Kagan had trouble concentrating. On Tuesday,

■ A California man, who posted a video of himself driving a newly purchased BMW on Facebook the day before he tried it out by leading authorities on a 47-mile chase around Auburn, will spend 1-3 years in prison paying for the excursion.

Cameron Gordon Pellow, 22, denied drinking before the Sept. 19, 2019, episode that resulted in a 16-month prison sentence in California. He did admit he had alcohol in the BMW with him when Auburn Police pulled him over.

“When I read through the materials in Mr. Pellow’s file, I felt like I was in a time-warp and re-reading police reports from 2019,” attorney John Malone said. “Although his behavior in Auburn was outrageous, he wasn’t drunk. That’s an improvement.”

The September incident occurred less than three months after he was sentenced July 2 to 1-3 years in prison in Douglas County for attempting to elude deputies.

Pellow was drunk when deputies responded to a shoplifting report on March 30 at a Lake Tahoe grocery store. When they tried to detain him, he drove around the parking lot, nearly striking several people and a patrol car. He managed to escape the parking lot, but was distracted by a bar and pulled in where he was taken into custody at gunpoint.